Beautiful freaks

From Left 4 Dead, of course...
As you see, there's not only one type of infected ;-)




And beware of the witch !!

Playing against the Living Dead

I just downloaded the Left 4 Dead demo yesterday evening (containing the first two maps of the first chapter of the video game), and started to play yesterday late in the evening, and also today. I did not look for online coop gaming yet, because I first wanted to better understand how the game was working for me (it is possible to play alone with internet switched-off, in that case the computer plays the 3 other characters in the game).

I had some framerate problems with my PC yesterday, just after I downloaded the game (especially when I fired, or when a lot of zombies rushed at once). I thought it could be due to my (now) aging laptop, even if it still handles Episode 2 without any apparent glitches. But it was probably just because some of the PC resources were not released after the (1 hour) download and install, because when I played it today none of these problems re-appeared.
Me and my AI mates were able to make it through the first map on advanced settings (after many trials though), but we were not able to finish the second map successfully - yet ;-). We were very close the last time, but I was insufficiently prepared to the never ending wave of zombies when I pulled the switch (I think it's at the end of the map, just before the safe zone, but I'm not sure..). I heard the sobbing of a witch, I knew the dreadful thing was close, so I switched off the flashlight to avoid to awaken it. The problem was that there were a LOT of other zombies rushing at us, and the last wave was fatal: witch awakened, character dead, mission failed ;-)


As of the game, it is very efficient to scare the player. I'm sure it is much better when really playing it coop, but even in standalone mode it's scary !!! Hearing the witch soft sobbing is really something for example... And they handle shadows very efficiently making you never fully at ease anywhere in the game. Art direction seems flawless when you are in the game. They say this on the L4D blog, and I really thing it examplifies the way the game was designed: we'll talk about our approach to lighting the dark and murky world of Left 4 Dead, with a focus on playable, stylized dark — namely, finding a balance that gives a player the illusion of darkness without getting frustrating.


You never know from were the things will arrive, even if you backtrack, you may encounter new waves of zombies. It never seems like the so-called "A.I. Director" is spawning just them just in front of your eyes, I played the same parts several times (after many deaths), and although encounters of zombies were always different, they never seemed random. I think it is partly due to the fact that all the level ambiance is consistent with the way and places they will appear. I would very much like to hear more about the director, because it seems to be very efficient with its purpose...

All in all, I'm 90% sure I will buy this game !!!

Update: I made it to the end of the two first maps after all... But I think I saw a zombie vomiting on the floor once. Disgusting !!

Update 2: The zombies are not generic at all. Apart from the 5 bosses, there is a LOT of different zombie faces, not only say one for zombie men, and one for zombie women. And even if you don't really have the time to enjoy the view, the graphics are really good, very good. During my nth trip through the two levels, I took a lot of screenshots - while endangering the life or my character, and believe me: they are really gorgeous. And even in the height of action (brains, brains !!!), zombies are, sort of, say, beautiful. hmm only as zombies, I agree, zombie women are really not my type, first they seem to never wash their teeth after eating raw meat ;-)

Merry Christmas

"we made it, WE MADE IT"

"son we just crossed the street"

Seems this game will be awesome, but son beware the cry of the Witch !!

HD in English here

Zombie Apocalypse

I read some reviews about Far Cry 2, and as I liked its predecessor (hmm may be not much the Sci-Fi part, the monsters were much less convincing that the humans), I began to be interested.

But although the game exteriors seem to be really gorgeous, it also seems to fail in a number of ways:

• Character models really look like some cheap plastic. This was not a problem in a game like Doom 3, because monsters were much more important than the (very) few humans, but here it seems odd in this recreation of Africa. Also Interiors impressed me much less than landscapes,


• No real story, enemies annoyingly respawning when you should have killed them minutes ago, and cheap tricks such as malaria bouts in the middle of action, or jeeps needing repair much too often to be real, enough to be annoying),


• Long, long trips without real action / story, save maybe (over and over) the same checkpoints, over and over,


• It seems you only see soldiers in the map, no villagers at all in 50 sq km ?


• Why having a real map in your hand if this is a magical map ?

This does not impress me at all. I don't mind not super-high realism (even if it was advertised), but I mind getting bored but a non-existent story and long minutes of nothing.

And now for something completely different: The game I'm eagerly waiting for now is: Left 4 Dead, from Valve, of course.



Being in the middle of a zombie movie as one survivor really seems to be a great idea, especially if the zombies are of the speedy kind as in 28 Days Later. Having the game deciding the mood and drama depending on how you are doing so far is a feat. If it works, it is really the beginning of a new era in gaming.

What Ubisoft seem not to have understand is the fact that a video game (or a movie) is not about reality, and the world it paints for us is only a prop. Wanting to have the maximum realism at all costs is a mistake (and especially in the case of this game, because it is hindered by many other bad game decisions). Players (or film viewers) don't want realism, they want the illusion of realism. This is not the same thing at all.

Shazam

I just tried the free Shazam application on the iPhone (available through the AppStore), and it's really really great (even if I don't know if it could be really useful). In case you don't already know what it does, here it is:
You point your iPhone microphone in the direction of any music playing, wait for approx. 10 seconds, and it gives the title of the track, album, and even the cover... Some people commented that it could only recognize mainstream, but it's not true: although it failed on Neurosis, Asphyx, and 1349, it had absolutely no problems with random songs of Emperor, Zyklon, Gorgoroth, Carpathian Forest, Marduk, Celtic Frost, or Arkhon Infaustus.

I don't think this list can count for only mainstream ;-)

Interesting times

I just bought the last Bloodbath album: The Fathomless Mastery , featuring the return of Mikael Åkerfeldt. For me, it is a really good Death album.
All this will be followed, by:

• Primordial on November 9th


• Enslaved on November 18th


• The last Satyricon album, The Age Of Nero, followed by the tour and the concert on November 23th


• Morbid Angel + Keep of Kalessin + Marduk on November 28th


• Cradle of Filth + Gorgoroth on December 2nd


• Asphyx and Hail of Bullets on 11th and 12th December near Amsterdam


• The Pagan fest (with Aes Dana, Eluveitie, etc...) in Paris on December 20th

Do I really have to choose ?
This was the good. And now the bad and the really really ugly: Vorkreist should have played near Plaisir this Week-end. But the sucker who is the director of the venue cancelled the gig because of possible troubles (sic) with Metalheads, whereas he organized another fucking French song concert took place near the venue the very same evening.

My new Phone

You already know of course, I could have titled this My New iPhone. I have the new iPhone 3G since Tuesday, and I have only one thing to say about it: This is really a killer. No need for a user manual, internet navigation and mails as simple as on PC - no much more simple in fact, SMS dangerously simple to write and send, google maps (even with satellite view, and very very fast !!!), plenty of cool apps for free or a few euros, and oh it can be used as a phone too.

How I was happy to click on the youtube icon, search for Emperor, and be able to watch almost immediately one Wacken video of Inno A Satana (among many others, of course).